Lagazel was founded in 2015 by Arnaud and Maxence Chabanne. Arnaud had previous experience producing solar lanterns in Burkina Faso through his company, CB Energie. Their goal with Lagazel was to bring accessible, quality solar solutions to the 650 million African people without access to the grid while creating sustainable local jobs.
They set up their first production centre in Dédougou, Burkina Faso, in 2016 creating direct local jobs and they have been expanding their impact on a qualified workforce through a partnership with a local professional education centre. The students that train at Lagazel’s production centre can continue their education closer to their homes (reducing their family’s expenses), contribute to the region’s development and can become clean energy entrepreneurs themselves in the future.
Their plan for the future includes opening 5 more production centres throughout Africa in the next five years, starting with Bénin, which is already up and running since 2021. Local production has an impact not only on local jobs and the local economy, but better after-sale service for consumers and better end-of-life recovery for products, increasing recycling rates.
Célestin Cissé, Lagazel employee
Célestin is a 50-year-old married father of two daughters, living in Dédougou (Burkina Faso). As a child, he had poliomyelitis, so his two legs are paralysed.
As a person with a disability, his employment options are limited, and when he was born, there was very little public administration support for people living with a handicap. Luckily, today there is more, and Lagazel chose to contribute to equality by hiring people with disabilities and women. Célestin used to work for CB Energie solar company before being hired by Lagazel in 2016, when the factory opened. Initially, he had a 2-year contract that has been extended until now. Within the company, he works in the assembly line, within the electronic board welding and frequently in the assembly section.
Thanks to his work, he feels useful within his community. He has learned things like welding, repairing certain types of solar lamp failures and has learned about the different components that produce good quality products. He feels very proud to participate in the local production of products that can be found in shops in national and international markets.
He has also been able to afford a loan to build a good-quality enclosure for his home to improve his family’s safety and privacy. Since he lives next to a road, everything his family did before was visible for everyone to see. The lack of an enclosure also made access to and from his house particularly challenging with his disability when it rained.
His family, like so many others, lives with grave social and economic difficulties. Usually, the members of these homes have a low level of professional qualifications, so they don’t have many opportunities to access jobs that guarantee good revenue to improve their daily life and plan for the future. Célestin’s situation improved thanks to his job with Lagazel.
“Since I work at Lagazel, I can do certain things for my family. I was able to enrol my daughter in a private school. I have also hired a tutor to receive private lessons and her results have improved at school. During the first trimester, she has had an 8 as an average grade. Thanks to what I’m earning I have also helped my wife set up a small shop. She sells coal and “soumbala” to help us manage our family’s needs. I was also able to buy her a bike so she can go places and around the neighbourhood to sell her products in the evening. Through public services, I have also received a motorcycle for people with disabilities that I was going to resell if I wasn’t working. I can fill it up with gas to go to work and do the upkeep for it thanks to my salary. My wife and I had a church wedding in June 2020 thanks to the money that I was able to save.”